This year Unicef's annual flagship State of the World's Children report, released on Friday, focuses exclusively on adolescents. A recognition, says Unicef, of the increasingly urgent need to invest in the world's 1.2 billion 10-19 year olds, an invisible generation who are nevertheless pivotal in global efforts to reach the UN millenium development goals targets by 2015.

The report argues that adolescents are often marginalised in development budgets and programming, and that if this is not corrected then investment in global poverty, health, education and employment goals will be compromised.

Many of the world's teenagers were babies or young children when the MDGs were established in 2000. Since then, many of them will have been the direct beneficiaries of the significant global gains in child survival, primary education, access to safe water and sanitation.

The fact that the world has achieved a 33% drop in infant mortality in 11 years in testament to the fact that progress can be made when matched by political will and national investment.

However, the report says this investment and support tails off when these same children enter the second decade of their lives, and that development programmes are not sufficiently making the link between an investment in early childhood and the need to consolidate these gains into early adulthood.

For example, although millions of children have been vaccinated against dangerous diseases, one-third of all new HIV cases in the world involve 15-24 year-olds. In Brazil, 26,000 children under the age of one were saved between 1998-2008, but in the same decade 81,000 Brazilian teenagers were murdered.

According to Unicef, adolescence is the most dangerous period of many children's lives. This is the time when young people, especially girls, are at the highest risk of dangers such as child marriage, forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation. But these dangers are yet to be reflected in child protection resources and assistance.

The report says that greater investment in adolescence is also crucial for further progress towards the MDGs. Adolescence is the pivotal decade where poverty and inequality pass on to the next generation, and is most apparent among poor adolescent girls who become mothers.

Those with low levels of education are at particular risk of perpetuating intergenerational cycles of poverty, discrimination and inequity. Almost half the world's adolescents do not attend secondary school or do not complete their studies. Despite the advances towards gender parity in primary education, girls are still far less likely to attend secondary education than boys. The development advantages of education, particularly for girls, have been proved time and time again. Educated adolescent girls are less likely to marry early, get pregnant and have a better knowledge of HIV/Aids and health issues.

Adolescence is also a time when other cultural forms of gender discrimination come into play and perhaps presents the best chance of confronting and challenging institutionalised attitudes and behaviours.

Country-by-country statistics at the back of the report reveal some interesting findings on adolescents' attitudes to violence against women.

The data shows a general tendency for girls to justify domestic violence more than boys. This phenomenon, however, is not universal, as in some countries, such as Azerbaijan, the opposite is true).

In Benin, for example, girls are almost four times as likely to justify domestic violence than boys the same age. Researchers also found that younger girls were as likely to excuse violence than older women. How likely is it that these pervasive attitudes towards violence get passed down to the new generation of daughters?

Unicef argues that in the current global economic climate, a stronger focus on adolescents is becoming increasingly crucial as children are now reaching adolescence as the world is gripped by social and political insecurity, spiralling food prices and rising unemployment.

The global economic crisis has compounded a situation where 81 million young people are unemployed and 15-24 year olds make up one-quarter of the world's working poor. This is likely to have a significant impact on future economic recovery and growth.

The latest International Labour Organisation report showed that youth unemployment is now a significant concern in almost every national economy. More than 20% of international companies consider inadequate education of the potential workforce to be a significant obstacle to higher investment and faster economic recovery.

Earlier this week, Alasdair McWilliam of the Overseas Development Institute, blogged on this site about the extent of youth unemployment in countries in the Middle East recently beset by political unrest and upheaval.

Despite the region being a "star performer" in terms of development indicators such as health and education, unemployment among 15-24 year olds stands at over 25%. With two-thirds of the region's population now below 24, young people are not being absorbed into the economy and employers are complaining of poor education and low skills.

McWilliam also argued that that– youth unemployment and a lack of political voice – two factors attributed to the growing unrest in the Arab world – are not included in prominent measures of development.

The Unicef report also suggests that the MDGs do not adequately address the challenges and dangers facing the world's youth. Although many of the MDGs are related to adolescence, the goals themselves focus more explicitly on the survival and health of under-5s, reflected in specific and clearly defined targets on infant mortality, infant immunisation and primary school enrolment. According to Unicef this has partly allowed an under-investment in programmes targeting teenagers and young people.

The conclusion of the report is stark. The global fight against poverty, inequality and discrimination will be compromised if this doesn't change.